Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

rollingstone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 236 posts

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#161

Post by bennyg »

NamTaf wrote: post #160
bennyg wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I created a fairly successful app that aimed to give users the best drink specials in my college town. I honestly can't bring myself to work on it anymore because I feel morally reprehensible and somewhat socially responsible for binge drinking when alcohol is such a dangerous substance. Who's not going to over-drink when well drinks are $0.25 a pop, nobody makes a ton of expendable income in college, and my app prom…

For what it's worth, Australia's been a pretty good case study on how significantly increased (+70%) taxes - and therefore, prices - for alcohol did not deter binge drinking [1]. All it did was shift the consumption from one form to another, as well as decrease drinking between binges. In that sense, you could arguably say that you're not materially increasing the prevalence of binge drinking but really just saving t…

Yeah, I've read tons of statistics from both sides of the debate, and still feel a little morally wrong for it. I did add taxi calling directly from the app to 7 different local taxi companies to help assuage some of my perceived guilt. The taxi page does see visits in my analytics though, so that's good if nothing else.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#162

Post by _nedR »

robflynn wrote: post #99
conesus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I run a news reader and you wouldn't believe some of the hate mail I receive. I just assumed he received much more of it and not enough of the positive mail. Also, when you're at the business end of a press blitz, you get overwhelmed and can make irrational decisions that you might come to regret.

It was the same for me when I was project lead for Gaim/Pidgin. I was lead for something like 6 years and I eventually got tired of the hate. Sure, there was plenty of praise, too. But the harassment eventually became annoying. It hit it's breaking point when someone folks managed to figure out my cell phone number and would call me at all sorts of hours (3am once!) to "tell me about their ideas." I changed my cell n…

Oh hi, you're the dev of pidgin? I have a couple of awesome ideas I want to sell to you. I'll call you with the details...

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#163

Post by _nedR »

cobrausn wrote: post #4
adriand wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I love this guy. I bet that very few of us on HN would have done what he did. I certainly wouldn't have. I'm not saying that what he did was right, but it was right for him, and what is impressive to me is that he realized that. That kind of self-knowledge is a wonderful quality to have or develop.

Yes, it is difficult to bring oneself to turn off the magic money machine once it starts printing, but keep in mind how much money he made and how much the existing installed copies still make for him. It certainly made the decision easier, I think.

Still would be the hardest decision i ever made in my life, If it was me .. And I would still be agonizing over it today...

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#164

Post by ThoreauAway »

TheZenPsycho wrote: post #155
specialist wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

made a large number of people believe that it is somehow noble and elevated. People haven't changed. There have always been trolls, malcontents, crazies. Attend any public hearing, ask any fan club or newspaper mail room. As a new medium, the distinction of the web is significantly lowered transaction costs. No different from email spammers.

The difference is today, flames are hugely aided by convection. Or in other words, there's a world of harm that can be done by putting a huge number of these malcontents in contact with each other in a way that they can all cooperate, with laser focus on a single subject.

and the echochamber they create that reinforces their belief system as well as amplifies the message to a wider audience.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#165

Post by mattlutze »

chris-martin wrote: post #158
jusben1369 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think this is a US specific issue?

Someone in Vietnam released software to the world, therefore this is a story about American culture. That's just how Americans think. It's also necessarily about modern American culture, even if you know absolutely nothing about the past.

Rolling Stone isn't going to run an article about the impact of Flappy Bird on culture in Tazmania or Greece; while it would be tangentially interesting, the subject's incredibly small proximity to the life of the average reader of the American version of Rolling Stone means it won't have the same impact.

Not a "just how Americans think" issue, a "what is relevant to our readers' lives" issue.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#166

Post by bemmu »

biot wrote: post #121
hnriot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree with his point of view. He could simply sell the game to an established company that is already set up to handle the responsibilities that come with running a business. Throwing away $50k/day is just a stupid thing to do.

Two things about that: 1. He's still earning ad revenue from existing installs. 2. In the last 22 hours of the app's existence (when he announced he would be taking it down) more than 10 million new people installed it. In other words, he's likely making just as much if not more today. He could have instantly removed it from the app store instead of saying "in 22 hours", so it's entirely possible that he's way better…

Yes, quite possible he managed to snatch the last boost from an app that would otherwise have met a decline. It was already being covered all over the news. Reporters were looking for something more to say about it and he gave them that chance. Instead of being featured all over the news once, he got one mention for the initial spread, another one for the takedown threat. Now as a final (?) third one he achieves cult status for the game, increasing replays for the already installed base and ensuring interest for his future games.

I'm sure everything he says is true and it is not a conscious strategy, but the end result is the same.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#167

Post by zhemao »

chris-martin wrote: post #158
jusben1369 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think this is a US specific issue?

Someone in Vietnam released software to the world, therefore this is a story about American culture. That's just how Americans think. It's also necessarily about modern American culture, even if you know absolutely nothing about the past.

You realize antirez is Italian, right?

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#168

Post by zhemao »

rottyguy wrote: post #79

"Growing up in Van Phuc, a village outside Hanoi famous for silk-making, Nguyen (pronounced nwin) never imagined being a world-famous game designer." As Nguyen is a very popular Vietnamese name, I'd thought to bring this up.. It is not pronounced with an 'N'.. wikipedia has the correct pronunciation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen

The "southern pronunciation" on that Wikipedia page clearly has an N sound at the beginning.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#170

Post by [deleted] »

minikites wrote: post #139
antirez wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, seen from outside, this seems something strange and, in my opinion, not good about the American culture: there is always somebody to blame for your problem, a reason why you are acting in a given way, an external cause if you suffer a medical problem, eat too much, put all the kind of pills in your body, and so forth. Probably this is representative only of a minority, but from the outside this looks like…

> Example: a violent game can be a way to express violence of an otherwise repressed person, or some other people that is having a few bad weeks, is finding an escape playing at it. Yeah, that's not actually true. "Letting your anger out" makes you angrier. http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/08/11/catharsis/

[deleted]
Post reply on HN